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Types of Deixis
Spatial Deixis (here, there)
Temporal Deixis ( now, then)
Deictic expressions and context
They are among the first words acquired by the
language
Same context
Face to face communication
Deictic Expression and Context
They are among the first words acquired by the
children.
Same context
Face to Face communication
Deictic Center
The time of utterance ; place of utterance, the person
just giving the utterance.
Near Speaker____ Away from speaker
Proximal distal
This, here, now That, there, then
SPATIAL DEIXIS
Spatial deictics is where the relative location of
people and things is being indicated
The most basic spatial deictics are the adverbs here
and there. These can be glossed ‘place near to the
speaker’ and ‘place not near to the speaker’
Here is where we will place the statue.
She was sitting over there.
CONT… Verbs such as ‘come’ and ‘go’ indicate movement
toward the speaker or away from the speaker
Demonstratives e.g. “this” and“that”
I enjoy living in this city
PSYCHOLOGICAL DISTANCE The basis of spatial deixis is often psychological distance
(rather than physical distance)
Physically close objects will tend to be treated by speakers as
psychologically close
Physical distant will generally be treated as psychologically
distant e.g. ‘that man over there’
A speaker may wish to mark something physically close as
psychologically distant, as when you indicate an item of food
on your plate with “I don't like that”
Temporal Deixis Time or temporal, deixis concerns with the various times involved in and referred to in an utterance.
This includes time adverbs like "now", "then", "soon", and so forth, and also different tenses
Time adverbs can be relative to the time when an utterance is made ( "encoding time", or ET) or when the utterance is heard ("decoding time", or DT) e.g
It is raining now,
CONT… Examples
Pure English temporal deictics
now – (proximal form)designates a time period
overlapping with the time of speaking
then – (distal form) it means ‘not now’, and can point
either into the future or the past.
a. November 1st 1963? I was in Scotland then.
b. Dinner at 8.30 on Saturday? Ok I’ll se you then.
Features of Temporal Deixis
1. Temporal Deictic Expressions
Yesterday, tomorrow, today, tonight, next week, last week,
this week.
- depend upon their interpretation on knowing the
relevant utterance time. E.g
- Back in hour
- Free bar tomorrow
2. Psychological Basis of Temporal Deixis
Similar to spatial deixis
We treat temporal event as objects that move towards
us (into view) or away from us (out of view) e.g
the coming week, the approaching week
In days gone by, the past week
For near or immediate future we use“this” e.g “this
weekend”, “this Thursday”
3. Verb tense - Temporal deictic
In English there are two basic forms-
- present tense – proximal form
- past tense – distal form
E.g I live here now.
I lived there then.
Examples of Distal form
I could swim (when I was a child).
I could be in Hawaii (if I had a lot of money).
CONT… Distal form in temporal deixis also used to
communicate not only distance from current time but
also distance from current reality and fact.
It also communicate the negative
E.g
If I had a yacht,…..
If I was rich,….
Deixis and Grammar Basic distinction for person, spatial, and temporal can be
made in structural distinction in grammar-
direct(reporting) / indirect speech (reported) e.g
Direct : Are you planning to be here this
evening?
Indirect : I asked her if she was planning to be
there that evening
Context shift – proximal form distal form
1st sentnc 2nd sentnc
(near speaker) (away frm speaker)
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